Published: 27 Oct 2016 16:12 GMT+02:00

When two headless bison were discovered at a nature reserve in eastern Spain wildlife police launched a search for trophy hunters who they believed had poisoned the animals to death before removing their heads.

Carlos Álamo, the director of Valdeserrillas Nature park, had taken to social media to decry the death of two males in his beloved herd, animals that were brought to Spain last year as part of a bison reintroduction programme funded by the European Union.

But he appeared in court this week after being charged for negligence following a post mortem on the animals that appeared to suggest they had been starved to death.

The headless corpse of Sauron, the 660-kilo (1,455-pound) alpha male of the herd had been found in the park in mid-September followed a week later by the discovery of a second headless animal.

Initially investigators had followed the theory that the animals had been poisoned before their heads were cut off with an axe by trophy hunters, after poison pellets were discovered.

But the park director now stands accused of having behead the animals himself to cover up the fact that they had died of malnutrition.

The European bison, the continent's largest wild land mammal, once roamed across most of the continent but it was severely hunted until it finally became extinct in the wild in 1927, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

ISLAMABAD - The Afghan girl, who became famous for her striking green eyes on a National Geographic cover in 1985, was arrested Wednesday for possessing a fake identity card of Pakistan, where she lives in a refugee camp.

Sharbat Gula allegedly obtained Pakistani identity documents for herself and her two children after bribing three officials, a representative of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency told EFE, on grounds of anonymity.

The 46-year-old Afghan refugee, who does not have Pakistan citizenship, will be moved to a prison for women, where she will be held until a court reviews her case, for which she could be sentenced to up to seven years in jail.

She could also be expelled from the country, according to the FIA official.

The police are also trying to track down Gula's two children to take them into custody.

The federal agency began investigating the case in February 2015 when several cases of Afghan refugees trying to obtain Pakistani documents to avoid deportation came to light.

CHILPANCINGO, Mexico – Five members of the UPOEG community self-defense group were ambushed and killed in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero by “heavily armed persons,” state police said.

The ambush occurred in the city of Juan R. Escudero as the vigilantes were returning from an operation, said the state police’s precinct chief in the town of Xalpatlahuac, Edith Baltazar.

The vigilantes left on Sunday for “the municipalities of Ayutla and Tecoanapa to conduct operations in the villages of Ocotito and Tierra Colorada, municipality of Juan R. Escudero,” Baltazar said in a statement.

The vigilantes’ convoy was traveling through the community of Villa Guerrero, located outside the city of Juan R. Escudero, when “they were ambushed by heavily armed persons, with the result that five community self-defense group members belonging to UPOEG, who were from different communities outside the cities of Tecoanapa and Ayutla, were killed,” Baltazar said.

“Meanwhile, communication was established with the community police command in Tecoanapa, who provided the same version to the precinct chief,” the Guerrero state police said.

Community police commanders in Tecoanapa said that “five dead bodies belonging to (members of) our organization (UPOEG) were brought in” on Monday afternoon.

“A group of six community police officers is missing,” Baltazar said.

UPOEG, whose members are armed, was created in January 2013 in the cities of Ayutla de los Libres, Teconoapa and San Marcos to protect residents.

The self-defense group controls access to the communities and polices them to fight drug traffickers and other criminals.

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump repeated on Saturday that he will build a wall on the Mexican border, to be financed by the U.S. and “reimbursed” by Mexico, and that he will suspend immigration from regions known for terrorism.

During a speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in which he described what the first 100 days of his presidency would be like, Trump confirmed that his law to put an end to illegal immigration would include financing for the wall, with the complete understanding that Mexico would “reimburse” the United States.

Up to now the Republican candidate had given the idea that it would be the neighbor to the south that would pay up front for building the wall to stop illegal immigration.

At Gettysburg – a historic place in American history where Abraham Lincoln in 1863 gave one of his most famous speeches during the Civil War – Trump again referred to his controversial idea of banning immigration from regions known for terrorism, though he gave no details about how this ruling would be applied.

On another subject, the New York magnate noted that he will cancel the “billions” of dollars being paid to the United Nations for climate-change programs.

Most of his proposals echoed previous announcements, such as his intention to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

He also criticized the excessive number of regulations, particularly in matters of climate change, imposed by the Barack Obama government.

Finally, he attacked his Democratic rival for the White House, Hillary Clinton, charging her with defending the same old Washington policies.

“Hillary Clinton is not running against me,” Trump said. “She’s running against change and she’s running against all of the American people and all of the American voters.”

As the U.S. electoral campaign enters its final stage just 17 days from the elections on Nov. 8, the Republican candidate seeks to gain back some of the ground he lost in the polls following the scandals dogging him in recent weeks.

LONDON – WikiLeaks said on Tuesday that the United States secretary of state asked Ecuador to stop its founder Julian Assange from publishing classified documents relating to Hillary Clinton.

Assange has lived inside Ecuador’s Embassy in London since seeking asylum there in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations.

According to a tweet on WikiLeaks’ official Twitter account, John Kerry spoke to Ecuador officials in a bid to halt the disclosure of documents belonging to the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the U.S. in 2016 during negotiations with Colombia’s rebel FARC organization.

“Multiple U.S. sources tell us John Kerry asked Ecuador to stop Assange from publishing Clinton docs during FARC peace negotiations,” the tweet said.

The tweet came a day after WikiLeaks denounced that the embassy had “cut off Assange’s internet Saturday, 5 pm GMT, shortly after publication of Clinton’s Goldman Sachs speeches.”

Assange is unable to leave the Ecuadorian mission because Sweden seeks his extradition to question him over alleged sexual assault offenses against two women, which he denies.

The Australian ex-hacker has said he fears he could be arrested if he sets foot outside the embassy and extradited to Sweden.

London’s Metropolitan Police has said it would arrest Assange if he ventures out onto the streets.

Assange has said that if he is extradited to Sweden he could be handed over to the U.S. for questioning over the unauthorized publication of hundreds of thousands of its classified documents by WikiLeaks.

In another tweet, WikiLeaks said Kerry had a private meeting with Ecuadorean officials on the sidelines of the peace talks that took place in Colombia.

Given that Assange has been isolated in the embassy building for four years, internet was one of the few ways the activist could maintain contact with the outside world.

The U.S. State Department has denied that Kerry requested Ecuador to cut Assange’s internet access.

State Department spokesman John Kirby told EFE there was no truth in WikiLeaks’ claim that Kerry had spoken to Ecuador officials about this matter.

ISLAMABAD – At least 62 people were killed, including the attackers, and around 100 others were wounded in an attack on a police training academy in the city of Quetta in western Pakistan, a government spokesperson told EFE.

“Fifty-nine people died in the police center, in addition to the three attackers, and around 100 were injured,” said Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar, government spokesperson for Baluchistan province whose capital is Quetta.

Khan said the three attackers were wearing suicide vests and two blew themselves up.

A cadet from the center told television channels that he saw three men dressed in camouflage entering the dormitory with Kalashnikovs.

“They began to shoot, but I could escape by climbing over a wall,” he said.

Major General of the Frontiers Corps Sher Afgan told reporters the attackers belonged to the Sunni insurgent group of the sectarian Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and that they were in contact with Afghanistan during the attack.

Friday, October 21, 2016

WASHINGTON – An American soldier died Thursday in a bomb blast in northern Iraq, officials at the headquarters of the U.S. military operation against Islamic State.

“Today, a U.S. service member died fr/ wounds sustained in an improvised explosive device blast in northern Iraq. Further info when available,” Col. John L. Dorrian said on Twitter.

Dorrian, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, did not say whether the dead service member was part of the U.S. contingent supporting the Iraqi-Kurdish offensive to expel IS from the northern city of Mosul.

The U.S. military has assigned between 100 and 200 personnel to back the push to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second city, which fell to IS in June 2014.

Though the Pentagon says that U.S. service members are not taking part in combat, they remain exposed to danger amid the chaos of battle and the lack of a well-defined front line in the conflict with Islamic State.

Iraqi and Kurdish units started their advance toward Mosul on Monday and have gained ground more quickly than planners expected.

But the resistance is likely to intensify as the Iraqis and Kurds get closer to the city, where IS fighters are preparing for urban warfare.

A Norwegian Islamist fighting in Syria murdered the two-year-old son of a rival, after marrying the man's ex-wife, journalist Åsne Seierstad has claimed in her new book, Two Sisters.

According to Seierstad, Bastian Vasquez killed the son of Arfan Bhatti, a leading figure in the Norwegian Islamist group Profetens Ummah, after the boy came to Syria with his mother to engage in Jihad. Vasquez was then executed by ISIS for the crime.

The sensational new claim about the Chilean-Norwegian Islamist, who before his death last year was believed to be one of the most senior European figures in the Islamic State hierarchy, is a side-story to Seierstad’s investigation into the two teenage sisters who went from Norway to Syria in 2013.

According to the book, the boy’s mother Aisha Shezadi, was first married to Bhatti, but then went voluntarily to Syria where she she became Vasquez’s second wife.

Before his death, Vasquez presented some of ISIS’s most disturbing propaganda videos. In one, he first shows a group of captives imprisoned in a building, and then shows the building being blown up as he laughs and praises Allah. After the videos were published, Vasquez was charged under Norway's anti-terror laws.

Bhatti as a teenager was a member of Oslo's Young Guns gang, and in 2006 was charged for firing shots at the Oslo Synagogue and the Israeli and US embassies. He resurfaced as an Islamist in 2012.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Published: 19 Oct 2016 09:48 GMT+02:00

A terrified eight-year-old boy in western Sweden leapt from a balcony to get away from a man dressed as a clown.

Eight-year-old Oliver was briefly left alone when his mother and sister went out to buy groceries in Skara early on Saturday evening, local radio station.

When he heard someone banging on the front door of the family apartment the boy went out to greet his mother but instead came face to face with what appeared to be a tall, fully grown man in a clown suit.

Oliver turned on his heels and fled to the balcony. Neighbours then looked on in horror as the boy jumped three metres into the courtyard to get away from the intruder.

When Oliver’s mother returned home she was met by her son and a group of agitated parents, who had seen the clown in the family's living room window. She searched every inch of the apartment and called the police but the imposter had managed to get away undetected.

Oliver’s feet were sore from the jump but he was otherwise physically unharmed. The incident has however left its mark.

“He looks all around him to make sure there’s nobody behind him, it was very trying,” his mother told P4 Skaraborg.

Oliver told the station he was most scared in the evenings “because that’s when the clowns come”.

Published: 19 Oct 2016 11:31 GMT+02:00

A Swiss man who was told he would not be accepted for military service because of his strict veganism has finally succeeded in making the army change its mind.

Antoni Da Campo, a strict vegan and member of Swiss animal rights organization PEA, was keen to undertake his obligatory military service and last December passed all the medical and physical tests required by the army.

But he was declared “unfit” for service because the army felt it could not accommodate his vegan diet or his refusal to wear leather boots – despite the fact he had offered to pay for synthetic boots.

Speaking to The Local earlier this year, Da Campo said: "They declared me doubly unacceptable, meaning that I can't do civil service either. It's for that reason that I find their decision discriminatory and arbitrary”.

As a result, he would have to pay a tax on his income until the age of 30 instead of serving.

Unwilling to accept the army’s stance, Da Campo took his case to a Lausanne appeal court in March – and lost.

He then appealed a second time to the Federal Administrative Court, arguing that the army’s decision went against his human right to maintain his personal convictions.

In a statement sent to The Local on Wednesday, Da Campo said he argued there was no legal basis for declaring a person unfit for military service simply because of his veganism.

Demanding he pay a tax because of his philosophical beliefs constituted a discrimination and violated the principle of proportionality, he said.

The court ordered the two parties to discuss the matter further between themselves, and as a result, the army decided to change its mind and has now declared Da Campo “fit” for service, he said.

"There are more and more vegans in our society and I am happy to see that the army, like all public institutions, chooses to adapt itself to this reality” said Da Campo.

“Vegans should enjoy the same rights and duties as other citizens and not be forced to pay a tax just because they refuse to put [on] boots that involved the killing of animals."

MEXICO CITY – Federal judge Vicente Antonio Bermudez Zacharias has been assassinated outside of his home in Metepec town in the central State of Mexico, and the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) has assumed the investigation into the murder.

Bermudez, 37, was the fifth district judge of Amparo and presided over federal civil trials based in Toluca since December 2013. He was attacked on Monday morning and died from single gunshot wound, official sources told EFE.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has condemned the murder while leading the annual meeting of the International Association of Judges and ordered the PGR to take charge of the investigation and find the perpetrators.

The PGR announced that based on the rules of competency established by the National Code of Criminal Procedures, the office will take on the investigation into the homicide of federal judge Antonio Vicente Bermudez Zacharias.

“From this moment, the delegation of the PGR in the State of Mexico will continue with all the investigations,” the PGR said in a statement.

The Supreme Court of Justice also condemned the crime, demanding that authorities investigate and resolve the case, as well as ensure “conditions of security and tranquility” so that judges can continue to carry out their work independently.

Meanwhile, State of Mexico Governor Eruviel Avila revealed the existence of a video showing the attack on Judge Bermudez, while giving the federal government full support to investigate the crime and find those responsible.

The video was later broadcast by local media, with footage showing the judge jogging on the street on Monday when a person suddenly appears behind him and shoots him in the head.

Bermudez presided over controversial cases including that of indigenous environmental activist Ildefonso Zamora, who endured 9 months in jail for his alleged involvement in a robbery but was released by Bermudez last June amid insufficient evidence.

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Six suspected robbers were left with mutilated hands and one person has died in attacks by the self-proclaimed vigilante “Grupo de Elite antirratas,” or Anti-criminal Elite Group, in Tlaquepaque municipality of the western Mexican state of Jalisco, municipal police reported.

According to the ongoing investigation under Tlaquepaque Police Commander Eduardo Palacios, the victims may have been kidnapped before their mutilation.

One of the victims was found dead next to a sign with a handwritten message that read, “This is what happens to thieves” as a warning for burglars, car and motorcycles thieves, as well as those who attack pedestrians.

The other six victims, including one woman, were found with their hands cut off up to their wrists, presumably with machetes.

In addition to the amputation wounds, which were covered with plastic, various parts of the victims’ bodies were painted with the word “Rat.”

Palacios said that none of the wounded gave more information since they “were in shock” after what had happened.

The assailants left the hands cut off from the seven people in two plastic bags left next to them.

The injured were taken to different hospitals in the metropolitan city of Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

LIMA – Peruvian authorities on Tuesday burned 7.7 tons of drugs seized in recent months in the first such operation since President Pedro Pablo Kuczinski took office on July 28.

Interior Minister Carlos Basombrio oversaw the drugs’ incineration at the National Police Special Forces base in Lima’s Ate district.

“This first ceremony is a symbol of the successes in the war on drugs,” Basombrio said, adding that the incineration was carried out “with a system providing all safety guarantees.”

“This is the first incineration of drugs under this administration,” the interior minister said. “It is part of the very difficult fight against drug trafficking.”

“We know well the destructive power, the corrosive power, the damage that drug trafficking causes to society. Our country produces the raw materials for drugs and increasingly produces the drugs themselves,” Basombrio said.

“It is a titanic effort required day after day to try and corner this scourge that moves huge fortunes around the world,” Basombrio said.

The drugs burned were seized by the National Police in raids across Peru and included cocaine, marijuana, opium latex and opium poppies.

The illegal drugs were seized between July and October “after the last incineration, in June of this year,” the Interior Ministry said.

The ceremony was also attended by Deputy Interior Minister Ruben Vargas; National Police chief Vicente Romero; and representatives of the courts, prosecutor’s office and other agencies involved in the war on drugs

Thursday, October 13, 2016

BERLIN – A suspected Islamist militant arrested earlier this week committed suicide in his cell at a prison in Leipzig, the state government of Saxony said Wednesday, confirming earlier reports by German media.

Jaber Albakr, a 22-year-old Syrian refugee, was taken into custody Monday on suspicion he was planning an imminent terrorist attack.

Der Spiegel magazine reported on its Web site that the prisoner had begun a hunger strike and been placed on suicide watch.

German intelligence had indications that Albakr might have been preparing to carry out an attack “this week,” the head of the BfV domestic security agency, Hans-Georg Maassen, told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Authorities moved to arrest Albakr last Saturday, but he managed to elude them and flee his residence in the eastern city of Chemnitz.

Police found explosives and detonators in the residence.

Using an Internet chat room, the suspect arranged temporary lodging for himself with other Syrian refugees in Leipzig, about an hour away from Chemnitz.

But when his hosts realized Albakr was being sought by police, they tied him up and handed him over to authorities in the wee hours of Monday morning.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Wednesday that officials were still trying to determine when Albakr became radicalized.

He first arrived in Germany in February 2015 and was granted refugee status in June after a background check uncovered nothing that raised suspicions.

Albakr traveled twice to Turkey last year and made at least one visit to the Syrian city of Idlib, according to a report on Saxony’s MDR television.

MEXICO CITY – Javier Duarte, the governor of the Mexican Gulf state of Veracruz, said on Wednesday that he planned to step down 48 days before the end of his term to deal with the corruption investigation targeting his activities.

“I have made the decision, as of today, to ask the state legislature to grant me leave so I can step down from the post of governor,” Duarte, who took office in 2010 and was to finish his term this year, said in an interview with Televisa.

The 43-year-old Duarte, who is under investigation by the Attorney General’s Office for illicit enrichment, embezzlement and failure to perform his official duties, said “Veracruz does not need a part-time governor, it needs a full-time governor.”

“And it’s the right time to deal with, to face up to, the allegations and I cannot, if I stay on, govern on the one hand and on the other deal with this situation,” Duarte said, adding that the allegations against him were “unfounded.”

The Veracruz state legislature plans to hold a special session on Wednesday afternoon at which it may take up Duarte’s request.

The governor will not appear before the legislature in person, but his request is contained in a letter to lawmakers, state government spokesman Alberto Silva told EFE.

Duarte, a member of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, said no one demanded his resignation and that the move was “a personal decision.”

“I have nothing to hide, my assets have been made public, my financial statements have been very clear and have no variations in them,” Duarte said.

The governor said he had not touched “a single peso” from the public coffers and that the state’s debt “is balanced.”

“It would be truly laughable (to say) that I stole 35 billion pesos (nearly $1.85 billion). Where is it? It’s not simple or easy to hide” a sum of that size, Duarte said, adding that the allegations were “mere speculation.”

The governor was suspended by the PRI in late September, the final step before expulsion from the party.

Duarte has been accused of engaging in corrupt acts during his nearly six years in office and of attempting to shield himself legally from prosecution.

State lawmakers in Veracruz approved the creation of an anti-corruption prosecutor’s office and a special court in the state judicial system focused on corruption, with both initiatives seen as a way to protect Duarte, who was scheduled to leave office on Nov. 30.

The last governor to request a leave to step down before the end of his term was Angel Aguirre, a member of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, in Guerrero in October 2014, following the disappearance of 43 education students at the hands of police and drug traffickers in the city of Iguala.

MEXICO CITY – The remains of over 600 corpses have been unearthed in a field in the San Pedro municipality of northern Mexico’s Coahuila state, according to Grupo VIDA, a civil society group comprising the relatives of disappeared persons.

Bones, teeth, pieces of clothing and shoes were discovered in a 16-hectare field in San Pedro, west of the state capital of Saltillo.

Grupo VIDA president Silvia Ortiz said the remains have been handed over to authorities be identified, as cited by local media.

The ranches of San Pedro were the preferred mass killing sites for criminal groups active in the area years ago, when Torreon municipality was listed as one of the most violent cities in the world.

According to official data, almost 2,000 people from the area have been missing since that time, mostly as a result of violence between drug cartels.

Members of the office for the Attorney-General of Mexico and its forensics branch were involved in gathering the remains, alongside the National Human Rights Commission.

Hours before the remains were discovered, the assistant Attorney General’s office for Special Investigations said that since April last year, over 3,500 body parts were found in the ranch land.

The process of identification has been complicated owing to the deterioration of the bodies, some of which were set on fire in metal drums up to eight years ago as perpetrators attempted to erase the traces of their violent acts.

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

MOSCOW, October 12. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has dismissed Washington’s claims that Moscow is interfering in the US presidential race.

"It's flattering, of course, to get this kind of attention -- for a regional power, as President Obama called us some time ago," Lavrov said in an interview with CNN, adding that Russia had not seen “a single fact, a single proof” that Russia is meddling in the election.

When asked what he thinks about Republican candidate Donald Trump’s latest campaign scandal, Lavrov said that English was not his first language and that he was unsure if he would sound "decent.”

Then Lavrov said: "There are so many pussies around your presidential campaign on both sides that I prefer not to comment."

The video in which Trump talked about women in lewd terms back in 2005 emerged last week, forcing the candidate to apologize for his words.

MOSCOW, Sunday evening’s US presidential election debate between Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and her Republican rival Donald Trump revealed utter lack of tact on either side, with the opponents getting too personal now and then, polled experts on US affairs have told TASS. By and large, the TV show sounded like an obscene quarrel.

In the debate televised from St. Louis, Missouri, Clinton, a former US Secretary of State, accused Russia of war crimes in Syria and called for an investigation. Trump retorted that in Syria Bashar Assad, Russia and Iran were fighting together against the Islamic State (terrorist organization outlawed in Russia) and that the United States should join that common struggle.

Clinton’s "trump card"

"Hillary Clinton tends to demonize Russia and Putin in an attempt to deal a heavy blow on her main rival, Donald Trump," believes State Duma member Vyacheslav Nikonov, whose doctoral thesis was devoted to the US political system. "Confrontation with Russia is Clinton’s ‘trump card’ she is keen to use in attempts to outplay her Republican rival, allegedly having sympathy for Putin."

"By presenting Russia as an enemy the Democratic candidate hopes to mobilize her electorate for struggle against a common threat," Nikonov said.

He expressed regret the current election rhetoric was a reflection of Washington’s real policy towards Moscow. Over the past few days the US television networks kept showing footage presented as the effects of Russian air bombardments of hospitals and childcare centers in Syria, Nikonov said. "Clinton has in fact followed in US Secretary John Kerry’s footsteps to urge an investigation of what she described as Russia’s war crimes in Syria. In fact, this is a call for direct confrontation."

Andranik Migranian, a professor at the Moscow state institute of international relations MGIMO, remarks that Clinton did not bother to present any proof, though.

"At a certain point Clinton supported bombardments in Iraq and Libya, which had left tens of thousands of civilians killed. It is very careless of her to come out with war crime charges against Russia," Migranian said.

"Russia is now more proactive in its foreign policy. It has built up its military potential and proposed its own conditions for cooperation with the United States.

A very convenient situation for pointing an accusing finger at Russia and declaring it a common enemy, isn’t it? This is being done for mobilizing the electorate in Clinton’s support. But even if she emerges the winner, Clinton will have to interact with the Kremlin somehow, which she acknowledged regarding cooperation in the nuclear sphere," said the deputy head of the Institute of US and Canada Studies, Viktor Kremenyuk.

Meager content, much bawdry

By and large the experts described the US presidential debate as meaningless in content and very harsh in form.

"Judging by comments in the social networks, the fly that settled on Clinton’s face during the debate was the most widely discussed participant. This is a sure sign the public at large does not care at all about the content of the debate," Nikonov said.

He found rather amusing Clinton recalled a dirty remark about women, whcih Trump dropped eleven years ago, in her attempt to discredit the opponent as a sex maniac.

"By doing so she merely helped 70-year-old Trump score more points," Nikonov said with irony.

In his opinion, the rivals’ ferocious attacks against each other, including Trump’s threat to send Clinton to jail, are something unprecedented in US politics.

Migranian said the debate looked pretty much like a household quarrel, in which Trump dubbed Clinton as a duplicitous liar, while the opponent came pretty close to slamming him as a rascal.

"It was pretty boring to watch this 90-minute hassle, in which the opponents were washing the other’s dirty linen. It looks like the Americans are fed up with political correctness," Migranian said.

Who beat whom

"Even the outspokenly pro-Clinton television network - the CNN - had to admit that in the second round the Democratic candidate performed worse than Trump, while the multi-millionaire presidential hopeful coped with his task far better. It looks like it was really so," Nikonov said.

Kremenyuk disagrees. "By the second debate Trump had obviously lost much of his original momentum. On the contrary, Hillary looked triumphant," he said.

"We will know the answer to the question who beat whom after the latest public opinion polls, to be more precise, after November 8, the day of the presidential election in the United States," Kremenyuk concluded.